US Superior Court ruling in the case of Willard Stewart v. Dutra Construction Company

The authoress of this article has previously addressed the topic of what constitutes a vessel in American jurisprudence based on the case of Willard Stewart v. Dutra Construction Company (Prawo Morskie, vol. 21, 2005). The text discusses the verdict of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, which was faced with deciding whether the dredger on which Willard Stewart worked was a vessel or not. The initial and appellate court verdicts declared that the dredger was not a vessel. The Supreme Court of the United States came to a different verdict. The 'Super Scoop' dredger was declared to be a vessel. This was because this device was used to transport the crew and tools over water to the worksite, where the device was anchored to the bottom and left there to drill a tunnel. It was also able to navigate waters. In this case, the Supreme Court laid out the widest possible definition of a vessel as well as a very wide definition of sailor. The court's decision is undoubtedly advantageous for many employees.